Family Affairs and other matters

GAP YAH SON

This is so weird. I’ve even got “son off to uni” written in my diary I was that sure of it. Now it’s all change and HE’S STILL HERE!! In my house. For another year! Actually I”m very pleased although we’re going to have to sort out a few new rules. Things like

1. Stop sleeping so much
2. Get out of bed before 3pm
3. Get a job.
4. Work out where the dishwasher and washing machine are in the house
5. Work out a way of making lunch by yourself that doesn’t involve standing in front of the fridge staring mournfully into it waiting for a three tiered sandwich to leap out by itself.
6. Find out where the local supermarket is and how to pay for your own items.
7. Start revising for retakes in January.
8. Start working out how to pay for your travelling later next year.

and so on…..I’m showing him newspaper articles of depressing stuff – the three 19 year old’s that had just started their travels all being killed on a coach in Thailand – so desperately tragic. Their mothers have launched a campaign to make more people aware of how dangerous it is to be on a coach after dark in Thailand – their road traffic accident figures are about 10 times higher per year than ours.

He has sent out CV’s and even had some interviews. He’s got a trial shift in a pub tomorrow and some event work to do so I think he’ll be fine. You just want them to make the most of the time and not waste it.

I am thinking of going with him on his gap year – anyone else want to come?

NEW YORK: WHERE TO EAT (WITH TEENAGERS)

MY daughter and I were given some excellent advice about where to eat and found some fabulous places. To be honest she would have happily eaten cupcakes from the Magnolia Bakery all week:-

But when we weren’t holed up in Magnolia’s with cupcakes stuck in each cheek and required some additional sustenance, we went to a couple of fabulous places for breakfast/brunch:-

NORMA’S – in the Parker Meridian hotel. OMG. Absolutely divine blueberry pancakes. The best freshly squeezed orange juice I have ever had and scarily delicious looking chocolate french toast and your own little jars of maple syrup. Cute:-

It doesn’t look like a stereotypical American diner – presumably because it’s in a posh hotel – but the food more than made up for the atmosphere.

The other must go to breakfast place is BUBBIES in Tribeca – just great. Again almost the best blueberry pancakes in town and a more interesting atmosphere.

In the evening we went to these ones:-

BALTHAZAR restaurant in Soho was mentioned several times over – a lively large French restaurant renowned for it’s exceptional design. You have to book. Susan Sarandon is often there apparently, as is a host of other celebs. Excellent food:-

We had to go to an all American steakhouse and WOLFGANG’s was the classic steakhouse we were recommended. There are a few of them around – we went to the midtown one and had a lovely meal. Brilliant (huge) steaks. Great atmosphere, a good menu and lovely service.

We made a bit of a mistake with our order – asked for chips – forgot that we were supposed to order fries – look at these homemade “crisps”!! I have never seen crisps that big before:-

PASTIS was another great place to eat in the evening – or breakfast/Sunday brunch – it’s in the MeatPacking district – very cool:-

And here is my daughter at the end with her cupcake supplies to take back to her friends in London:-

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“FIRST NEWS” – THE WEEKLY NEWSPAPER FOR KIDS

WOOHOO. My daughter’s article about being in New York for the 9/11 Memorial Service is in the latest edition of First News, the award winning weekly newspaper for children. She is referred to as a “junior reporter”. It’s on the inside front page. She will be very pleased. Here is what she wrote:- WE WILL [...]

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MOTHER/DAUGHTER WEEKEND IN NEW YORK: THE FASHION BIT

We couldn’t have been there for a better weekend for fashion which was perfect for my daughter as she is considering fashion as an option for her future. We arrived just in time to join in all the events going on for the now three year old Fashion Night Out – the brain child of Anna Wintour. I’ve written about the event itself already – but thanks to the lovely people at Vogue we managed to get to the best events and I’m just going to do a little bit more showing off about who we met in case you missed it the first time. We strolled around the lively streets, got up close and personal with Grace Coddington in Prada:-

Me and Grace:-

Daughter and Grace:-

Met lots of new people and ate and drank and danced about. How simply perfect when fashion meets food – just look at the cupcakes we got from this mobile cupcake van:-

we then spent the next few days observing and recording….

What We Saw:-

New York seems to be just as eclectic when it comes to fashion as London – a real mixture of styles. We couldn’t really pinpoint many key features – apart from the obligatory take-away coffee (mostly a frappe as the weather was fantastically hot) that all the women carried about.

The teenage girls were all wearing shorts. These are my daughter’s favourite one’s at the moment and she got stopped several times whilst wearing them:-

As I mentioned Wellington Boots seem to be a feature of the streets (maybe due to the recent flooding). As did top knots, red shoes and dogs as accessories. Dogs came in all sorts of sizes, but the most popular dogs appeared to be those small enough to fit into Louis Vuitton bags. I saw one dog wearing shoes and another strapped into a baby papoose – literally like this one but at the front. Unbelievable:-

We saw some spectacularly interesting outfits:-

Tartan man in Grand Central Station (although loving those pink shoes too):-

Green net woman in Saks:-

Cool fashion in the street:-

There were loads of models about and fashion shows to go to for NY fashion week. Here is the gorgeous Rosie Huntington-Whitely – love where that man’s eyes are directed:-

What we did:-

Daughter very into neon nail varnish bought from Urban Outfitters:-

Showing off her nails:-

She liked these lips:-

We spent a lot of time on Fifth Avenue looking in all the divine shops. Saks near Central Park – with their memorial display in the window:-

My daughter loves Juicy Couture and Urban Outfitters so we had to spend an alarmingly long time in those shops. Ditto Forever 21 (which has just launched in the UK). Even I quite liked some of the stuff in there because it’s SO cheap. She chose a pair of leather shorts and then asked me if I could buy some for her friend back in London – so there I was, mother and daughter at the counter buying two pairs of leather shorts – the assistant thought they were for me and her. How embarrassing.

We also spent a lot of time in Soho where the shops are more boutiquey and the vibe is much more cool and edgy. She found a lot of cheap indie shops which made me miserable and I found Dean and Deluca, the fabulous purveyors of fine wine, food and kitchen ware which made me happy (because I bought tea towels):-

Sorry – childish sense of humour:-

There we found a huge Victoria’s Secret where my daughter was literally fizzing with excitement. “OMG I’m in heaven” she kept saying, picking up one beautiful bra after another. Texts kept flying in from friends requesting various items. We converged in the changing room and as we were a mother/daughter combo they allowed us to share. BIG MISTAKE on my part. Firstly it felt like I was in a pink padded cell. There was a dimmer switch which I kept trying to dim as the situation got more and more bleak. So there I was trying on bras and pants with my daughter – not only were my bras smaller and my pants bigger than hers but nothing looked the same on me as it did on her obviously and I got more and more grumpy as she got more and more happy. Droopy bits. Cellulite. Bruises. Old skin. No cleavage. Juxtaposed with her. Big, big mistake. “Mum”, she said, laying out all her choices on the floor “I could literally cry with happiness – have you ever seen anything so beautiful?”. At this stage all I wanted to do was jump on them all and then her in a Rumplestiltskinesque rage – but my bras were SO padded I probably would have bounced off them and banged my head on the ceiling.

I like this shop, but it was no cheaper than in London:-

Even with the make-up we differed. She loves Mac make-up and we found a lovely girl to give her lessons in how to put on lipstick:-

Frankly she could have smeared it all over her face and still looked gorgeous. I of course tried to look just the same as her by being Laura Merciered…..sadly, nothing miraculous happened at all. But it was fun though.

We loved Bloomingdales (the equivalent of a Harvey Nichols) and Macy’s (probably more like Debenhams) but sadly missed the fabulous Anthropology shop everyone told us to go to. We went to all the obvious US shops that are cheaper there than in London like Abercrombie & Fitch (although my daughter thinks this should be avoided now because it’s full of tourists and nobody she knows buys anything from there anymore) and Hollister and I bought a pair of J Brand jeans.

Thats about it. Just fabulous. Couldn’t recommend it more highly. Everyone assisting us in the shops were lovely and cheerful. The biggest danger is trying not to spend too much. The exchange rate was $1.5 to the £ so not like it was last time I went when we got $2 to the £.

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MOTHER & DAUGHTER LONG WEEKEND TO NEW YORK

We are back from our mother/daughter long weekend in New York. What a great idea for a travel piece. Even the US Vogue office thought so (regarding assistance for covering Fashion Night Out):- “the postings you are proposing sound unique particularly in providing a mother/daughter perspective” I would be happy to help and will contact [...]

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TOP 10 GIRLY THINGS TO DO IN NEW YORK (WRITTEN BY A TEENAGER)

My 15 year old daughter and I had the most amazing time together in New York. She has written a very good report all about the 9/11 ten year anniversary event but I will post about that later as it is hopefully going to be in First News children’s newspaper later this week. So, apart [...]

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“REFLECTING ABSENCE”

Whilst in New York with my daughter over the 10 year anniversary weekend we of course went off to see the new memorial called “Reflecting Absence” which was opened to the public two days ago. It’s main features are two pools on the footprints of the fallen towers with accompanying waterfalls. The names of the [...]

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